Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Rainbow River is located in Dunnellon, Florida, USA, which is in the southwest corner of Marion County Florida, USA, about 20 miles southwest of Ocala, 100 miles northwest of Orlando and 100 miles north of the Tampa Bay area.

This is a famous picture, taken in 1930, showing the young black men accused of raping a Caucasian woman and killing her boyfriend, hanged by a mob of 10,000 white men. The mob took them by force from the county jail house. Another black man was left behind and ended up being saved from lynching. Even if lynching photos were designed to boost white supremacy, the tortured bodies and grotesquely happy crowds ended up revolting many.

1992. A mother in Somalia holds the body of her child who died of hunger.

2002. Soldiers and villagers in IRan are digging graves for the victims of the earthquake. A kid holds his father's pants before he is buried.

2003. An Iraqi prisoner of war tries to calm down his child.

1965. A mom and her children try to cross the river in South Vietnam in an attempt to run away.

1962. A soldier shot by a sniper hangs onto a priest in his last moments.

January 12, 1960. A second before the Japanese Socialist Party leader Asanuma was murdered by an opponent student.

1996. Kids who are shocked by the civil war in Angola.

February 23, 1981. Colonel Tejero military police seizes the Parliament building in Spain . The photographer did not expect the scene, and hid the films in his shoe.

1963. Thich Quang Duc, the Buddhist priest in Southern Vietnam , burns himself to death protesting the government's torture policy against priests. Thich Quang Dug never made a sound or moved while he was burning.

1994. A man who was tortured by the soldiers since he was suspected to have spoken with the Tutsi rebels.

2001. An Afghani refugee kid's body is being prepared for the funeral in Pakistan.

1980. A kid in Uganda about to die of hunger, and a missionary.

1975. A woman and a girl falling down after the fire escape collapses.

1973. A few seconds before Chile 's elected president Salvador Allende is dead during the coup.

The Photograph That Ended a War But Ruined a Life

"Murder of a Vietcong by Saigon Police Chief"

Eddie Adams, 1968

"Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world," AP photojournalist Eddie Adams once wrote. A fitting quote for Adams, because his 1968 photograph of an officer shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the head at point-blank range not only earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, but also went a long way toward souring Americans’ attitudes about the Vietnam War.

For all the image’s political impact, though, the situation wasn’t as black-and-white as it’s rendered. What Adams’ photograph doesn’t reveal is that the man being shot was the captain of a Vietcong "revenge squad" that had executed dozens of unarmed civilians earlier the same day. Regardless, it instantly became an icon of the war’s savagery and made the official pulling the trigger – General Nguyen Ngoc Loan – its iconic villain.

Sadly, the photograph’s legacy would haunt Loan for the rest of his life. Following the war, he was reviled where ever he went. After an Australian VA hospital refused to treat him, he was transferred to the United States, where he was met with a massive (though unsuccessful) campaign to deport him. He eventually settled in Virginia and opened a restaurant but was forced to close it down as soon as his past caught up with him. Vandals scrawled "we know who you are" on his walls, and business dried up.

Adams felt so bad for Loan that he apologized for having taken the photo at all, admitting, "The general killed the Vietcong; I killed the general with my camera."

1957. The first day of Dorothy Counts at the Harry Harding High School in the United States . Counts was one of the first black students admitted in the school, and she was no longer able to stand the harassment after 4 days.

1982. Palestinian refugees murdered in Beirut, Lebanon.

1987. A mother in South Korea apologizes and asks for forgiveness for his son who was arrested after attending a protest. He was protesting the alleged manipulations in the general elections.

1989. A young man in China stands before the tanks during protests for democratic reforms.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Red Beach is located in Panjin, Liaoning Province, in northeastern China. It is the largest and best protected wetland in the world with rare and precious red reed marshes. The ebb and flow of the sea forms the beach, while the infiltration of salts and alkali contributes to its red appearance. The 100 square kilometers of reed marshes turn color during September, becoming spectacular vistas. The well-preserved wetlands are also home to large numbers of wild birds, including red-crowned cranes and Saunders' gulls. The beach is a popular tourist site for those who live inside and outside Liaoning Province.

In 1989 Chinese artist Zhang Baohua invented a new style of painting which requires the artist to use his finger and palm prints to create unique works of art. It’s hard to believe such masterpieces can be created without any tools, but Zhang Baohuang manages to do it by using just his fingers and palm prints. His unique painting style is characterized by a concise, lively style and a sense of reality, and is considered a combination of traditional Chinese painting and the structural features of Western painting. Most of his works depict animals, especially dogs. Zhang’s works have been featured in art galleries all around the world, and he is known as “China’s world famous palm painting artist”.